Microsoft has launched a new cloud region in India.

The company this week announced the general availability of its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad, Telangana.

“This gives customers the choice to run eligible Microsoft Cloud services and workloads from Hyderabad, with the security, reliability, and support of a fully operational Microsoft region. India South Central strengthens the country’s foundation for scalable and sovereign-ready AI,” the company said.

Plans for the Hyderabad region were first announced in 2022. The new region comprises three availability zones and features “enhanced mechanical cooling with air-cooled chillers.”

Microsoft now operates four cloud regions in India – Central India in Pune, South India in Chennai, West India in Mumbai, and India South Central in Hyderabad. It also operates two data centers in partnership with Jio: Jio India West and Jio India Central.

Last year, the cloud company announced plans to invest some $20.5 billion in data centers and AI across India. The firm claims the largest hyperscale cloud presence in the country.

“Whether it is a Frontier Firm already running AI at scale or an enterprise taking its first steps, the question we hear most often is: how do we move faster from experimenting with AI to creating durable business value with AI? That requires trusted infrastructure close to where data lives, teams work, and decisions are made,” said Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India and South Asia.

“The Microsoft India South Central datacenter region is a critical part of that foundation, backed by Microsoft’s $20.5 billion investment commitment to India’s cloud and AI future. Making India AI-first is about bringing together the scale to support growth, the skills to unlock value, the sovereignty organizations expect, and the security they depend on. We are not investing in infrastructure to keep up with demand. We are investing in India’s ability to set the pace for the world.”

Named customers of the new region include Adani Digital Lab, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, and PB Pay.

“The launch of Microsoft’s new South Central India region in Hyderabad is a significant milestone in HDFC Bank’s Azure cloud journey,” said Atish Bhanushali, SVP II and head of cloud infra, HDFC Bank. “Having a dedicated DR region perfectly complements our Central India footprint, strengthening our business continuity and cross-cloud resilience. With its ample capacity and access to the latest compute capabilities, it will support our efforts to accelerate our AI initiatives and scale high-performance workloads, ensuring our banking services remain highly available, secure, and future-ready for our customers.”

To offset its energy use, Microsoft has signed more than 1GW worth of power purchase agreements and other long-term agreements in India. More than 630MW of that capacity is in operation.